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Leader (1850-1860), 20th August 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 15

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      Lessons In Christian Humility. There Is ...

      nockjee Cursetjee , a Parsee Vakeel or pleader , of consi derable Faculty and much pertinacity , lately asked the presiding Judge to define what the d istinctions and privileges of the European barrister should be ? This appears to be a very simple question , and capable of direct answer ; but what was the . reply of , the Court ? '"Wewill not entertain your petition , because when we " called o n a case of your 3 the other day you were nob prepared with it ; and also on one occasion you addressed us without the expression _ i ? - « nano (>(; iisnallvnsffril hv nativft va . lr « ftls in adof respect usuauy uaeu . uy native vaneeis m

      uudressing the Mofussil Courts . " This shifts the ground , and one has to inquire what are the expressions of respect ? Of course they must be different from those used by European-barristers , one of whom had not long previously thus addressed the judge : — " Look here , Mr . Erere . " Between the barrister and the European judge in the Sudder Court of Bombay there appears to be , fully established , " liberty , equality , and fraternity . ' But there is a distinction as applied to the vakeel ; in the Mofussil Courts , addressing Company ' s Judges they are accustomed to call the presiding gent .- —' ¦ Your Omniscience . "

      Now , let us understand that the presiding judge in many of those Courts is not a person who can be placed on a footing of equality with any police magistrate in the TJnitea Kingdom . In many cases he is not fit to be a judge at all , either by attainment , habits , or character ; not bred to the law , not learned in anything , and altogether a very irregular species of gent . He is , however , presumably a Christian , and being ,

      moreover , a judge , he expects the dark skinned pagan barrister standing before him to call him , " Your Omniscience . Ought not the Mofussil Judge , revelling in the pleasant freedoms and oriental exultations of this superhuman kind—surrounded by his Myrrhas and his myrmidons—to have before his eyes the fate of Mr . Charles KeanP —to contemplate with awe the moral of the Princess ' s , where , amid live and instructive

      hieroglyphics , pride nightly has its fall—and goes to supper ? English pride is encountering its destiny in other quarters ; its moral nose is brought to the sternest of grindstones . Has not the employer , iu more than one instance , declared to the working-class , that he would not recede ?—and yet , has ho not receded P Has he not preached political economy , and then forsworn his creed ? Has he not been obliged to ask the dismissed workmen to returnP Painful humiliation !—but so it is .

      There is , however , a yet deeper lesson . There is a region where the hard-working man suddenly finds himself at the top of society . He is the man of substance ; he is of the wealthy class . As for educated persons , who are only educated , and have not stout limbs , and constitution , they may take up their discontented abode in Canvas Town ; or they may wander about Melbourne ,

      begging for employment—perhaps begging for tUo Australian penny , which is a shilling ; and gutting tho shilling , hut not employment . Tho true costume of your man who has a right to swagger in affluence of purse and conscious importance is a leather coat , and thick stout boots lileo a navvy ' s , or a waterman ' s jack boots , such as arc worn in California . Aa to that lank

      person in black coat , with whito hands , and a 'iiltivatod articulation—ho perhaps is " only a government clerk , " or , worse still , an " M . A . " ¦ It is truo that pomo of theso gentlemen have wiown better days , even in the colony ; and they iiii ^ htexpoct that their former dependents would not forgot by-gono days . Perhaps , howovor , uioso dependents remombor the days too well . 1 l > o menial remembers the short word , tho harsh

      I ' uimfco for a slight fault . If tho servant has "Jitoii tho broad of tho master , it was in a separ'ifco room , as a stranger—more conscious of tho waiifroness because , day after day , it was never "rokun through . If tho servant was sick , tho master or the mistress was " kind" to him—as a p ulese . onaion . Indeed , every act of Christian « uuliHja 8 was most lilcoly accompanied by a < istaneo of manner which perpetually reminded 10 s' -rvant of his debased position—mockiuer tho inaxn ^ whieh tells him , " all aro equal in tho B 1 K « t o [ God . "

      iMit if i ) l 0 (] Op 0 n (_ lonfc—depondenl ; now no aiiTr ~ " WCro liO for fi ° < iuoac uncomfortable days , ( l to moot tlio mastor as man to man , boginmng io world do novo , it is not , always that tho master n lor got . Jb it something of tondernosa of

      conscience which makes the gentleman dislike to receive favours at the hands of those to whom they were given in a spirit in which he himself would scorn to accept them ? Would he dare to take with gratitude a crown piece from the hand into which he had flung it , with a haughty sense that the fee was worth more than the service it acknowledged . He used to give the crown for the solace of his own pride , and to make the obliging menial know his place : but now he would sooner starve before the man whose eyes his own haughty eyes would never meet at that

      time , than let the vails come back m the form of charity to himself . Even if his conscience is not thus wrung , there is one feeling that makes him hesitate to plunge into the only employment suitable for a colony of great working wealthlie is as ashamed to dig as he is to beg , —and especially is he ashamed to dig as one amongst a community of diggers . Nay , if lie has not his pride , the working man has his ; and so far have prejudices between the

      two classes been fostered by the old arrogance of the one , that positively there are working men well-to-do in Victoria who arrogantly refuse to employ " a gentleman . " Lately a journal—and this appears to us to be the deepest lesson of Christian humility the world has ever seen—rebuked this pride of the workingman , and vindicated the common right of the poor gentleman by an appeal to the " Christian feelings" of Australia ' s nouveaux riclies .

      August 20, 1853.] The Leader, 807

      August 20 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 807

      Responsibility Foe, "Accidents." In Form...

      RESPONSIBILITY FOE , " ACCIDENTS . " In former times , when there was less talk of sanitary matters , less horror of war , less selfish and servile love of life , the death of twelve men engaged in the service of others would have been sufficient to call forth a demand that the blood of those men should be accounted for . The event at the Crystal Palace is called an " accident ; " but we have so many experiences of the

      laxity with which that term is used , that we wish to know what kind of accident that was on Monday . If it was an accident of the railway kind , then we know that , although juries will acquit the originators of such disasters , for the want of some local proof to trace the fatal process back to its great first cause and directors , yet in tho public mind , and in the common sense of common juries , it is associated with such a disregard of human safety as amounts to manslaughter .

      There arc certain facts , therefore , to be ascertained before we can pronounce upon the character of this so-called accident . Was it totally unforeseen P Had there been no forewarnings , no forebodings P Because if there had , then the occurrence which followed was not , properly speaking , an accident , but a neglect . Is there any difference in preparing works of

      the kind , when those who are to be risked aro persons of consideration , or when they are only working men P We know , indeed , that men of tho higher classes will run risks as freely as any others . It is notorious in the army , that officers advance into tho danger moro uniformly , and further than their men will do ; but what is tho obvious cause P It is , that tho officer can obtain

      distinction . He would not rush to the cannon ' s mouth if it were not for tho sako of tho reputation that ho can find there . To condemn a fellow creature , therefore , to risk without tho chance of distinction which ho might obtain for it—without his chaneo of taking tho thousandth part of tho thanks in tho Gazette , —is a fraud upon his energy . In plain mechanical operations , whoro the whole of tlio work is under tho control of the

      manager , no structure should bo used that is not tested , and proved to bo quito sufficient for its purpose , especially when tho life of fellow creatures is to bo entrusted to it . This rule is observed in many cases , —in mines , in railway bridges , in ships . Usually tho duty of ro-oxamlnation is tho |> es ( , porfbrmed by those who aro themselves the most prepared to run into danger . Perhaps therein no euro in the way of precaution

      so great as that which is habitually taken by tho ofHcors of slujw at sea—men who aro , iu their own case , tho very models of unmeasured daring . They aro impelled to thoir oflico by a sonso of duty , and by that sympathy with ' their follow creatures which an habitual sharing of danger always causes . 3 Mow wo have to bo informed whether or not a similar duty was porfoi-mocl on behalf of the mon who woro sacrificed on Monday . It is nqt that wo mako any accusation

      against the Crystal Palace Company , or the contractors , or any individual whatsoever ; it is not even for the coroner ' s jury to pronounce upon , the merits of the case . The true accusation which stands against them—only partially modified by any possible verdict from the jury : —consists in the blood of those men . They have not yet distinctly- proved , in detail , that the accident was one which could not have been provided against .

      A Barrister's Duty To His Client. In Ano...

      A BARRISTER'S DUTY TO HIS CLIENT . In another column we print a letter expressive of " deep regret" at the observations we felt it our duty last week to make on the Smyth case . Our correspondent deserves notice ; we thank him for having asked it , as perhaps our remarks needed explanation . He writes on the assumption that we were specially criticising the conduct of Mr . Bovill in a particular case , and that fault was found by us with that gentleman for not making himself the " accomplice" of a villain , in a wicked attempt at fraud : Had we preached such a doctrine we know not what amount of penitence would have entitled us to absolution ; but the fact is , we have been misunderstood .

      There came before us , in our journalistic capacity , a case of great interest and importance , upon which public attention had fixed itself , and in connexion with which editorial comments would be expected . Appropriate , healthy , commonplace abounded ; a column of it would have been easy work ; reflections on the policy of honesty might have been approved , and they would have been easier . But obvious moralizing is not our forte . Everybody had heard before Saturday that murder will out , and saJiad concluded that what does " out" must be akin to murder .

      Observant persons had also noticed that messages go more expeditiously by the electric telegraph than by the post . Gentlemen with memories had been reminded , like Sir [ Frederick Thesiger , of the Tawell case ; the more communicative of them had said so , though without Sir Frederick ' s oath . We were left no alternative but to break new ground ; and the first point that seemed to us noteworthy was the connexion subsisting between the plaintiff and the plaintiffs counsel . Wo took that up and examined it , not with a view to blaming the barristers whom everybody seemed

      to approve , but for the purpose of testing tho grounds of this , as it seemed to us , too general approbation . It will be remembered that when , the other day , contemporaries by the score wero attacking Mr . Sleigh for an error , which , as he acknowledged , he had committed in court , we wero silent . His error was an accident , and therefore excusable ; it was a visible wrong , and thereforo needed no exposure . Our first intention in that caso was to draw attention to tho real delinquent , the barrister paid for his work , who had handed

      over his brief to Mr . Sleigh too late for him to road it ; but , on second thoughts , we gave Tip tho idea altogether , and left the caso as it stood . Had Mr . Bovill ' s conduct in tho present case been as exceptional as Mr . Sleigh ' s in that , and had there been a howl about it in the country , wo should liavo taken the same course that we adopted in Mr . Sleigh ' s caso ; but as it scorned to be actually tho subject of applause , and clearly tho offspring of a false professional morality , we attacked it . Wo will restate tho grounds of our complaint against the "indignant virtue of tho bar . "

      Tiio barrister is paid by the client to stato _ Jus cause . Apparently he may refuse to do so if Jio pleases , ns did Sir F . Kell y and Mr . jKoafcing in this case . It was—unfairly , wo think—loft by the newspapers to be inferred that those gentlemen ' s abfioneowaa to bo accounted for by their suspicion of their client ; the much more natural , conclusion—especially after Sir Kitwoy's scrupulously moral and ' highly prolmblo apple-pip defence—being that , they felt that a * pauper client honorariumBut

      could afford only a contingent , . ; howovor that may bo , the ' ir refusal to attend * and tho colour given to it , show . Mint it . iH not gonerally considered , whatever it may be named , nn infringement of bar etiquotto to look into your brief before accepting it . N <™ r , llm lt appears Mr . Bovill and his friends did not do . They , on tho contrary , accepted fees , and wont into Court , with the knowledge that alleged fraud was the defence , and in possession of tho fact that senior counsel had washed thoir hands of tho ease . Wo eay , tlien , that having , for a consideration

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1853, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20081853/page/15/